Many good results despite high risk

Norad’s Evaluation Department today presents two new synthesis studies with evaluative knowledge about the international development assistance to Myanmar and Nepal.

- The findings from the country reports provide useful knowledge about what works, and where improvements can be made, says Norad’s Evaluation Director, Per Øyvind Bastøe.

The Evaluation Department has previously published six such country reports. The reports on Myanmar and Nepal have been written by Particip GmbH in consortium with Menon Economics.

Reports on Haiti, Mali, Ethiopia and Tanzania will be presented in early 2018.

Myanmar: A complex country

- The evaluations from Myanmar tell us much about the challenges that must be overcome in this complex country, says Bastøe.

The country has significant challenges in terms of putting in place functioning infrastructure and delivering social services. Environmental degradation is another significant problem.

Myanmar has been more or less isolated for several decades. The synthesis study comes at a time when Myanmar has opened up for significant amounts of development assistance. Business actors have also demonstrated a growing interest in Myanmar in recent years.

Good results have been achieved, not least in education and health, but vulnerable groups are too often being left out. Development assistance to Myanmar must also be better co-ordinated than today, Bastøe adds.

According to the synthesis study, aid to Nepal has yielded important results in many areas.

- The education system has been strengthened at all levels. The same is the case in the health sector. For instance, Nepal has seen a significant reduction in maternal mortality, and development assistance has contributed to this, Bastøe says.

Support for local and rural development has contributed to poverty reduction at household level, but lasting poverty reduction has so far remained elusive. Absolute poverty, however, is largely a problem in rural areas.

- Energy production and distribution is the sector receiving the highest level of international development assistance in Nepal in recent years. The evaluations demonstrate that while the infrastructure has been improved, the goals for electricity production have not been reached, Bastøe adds.

While the early response following the 2015 earthquake was found to have been effective, longer-term reconstruction has suffered from the lack of an overarching, country-wide strategy.

Nepal continues to struggle in terms of gender equality and social inclusion. Significant inequalities and inequities remain based on gender, caste and ethnicity.

- The evaluations also show that Nepal is still grappling with serious levels of corruption, Bastøe concludes.

Mapping Norway’s Partner Countries

The concept Partner Countries was first used in the Norwegian Government’s budget proposal for 2018. In it, three categories of partner countries are specified:

countries for long-term strategic co-operation;

countries in need of stabilisation and conflict prevention;

countries that are central in fighting global challenges such as pandemics, climate change and terrorism/extremism.

The Country Evaluation Briefs present relevant knowledge about Norwegian and international donors’ development efforts in the partner countries. The briefs also identify areas where more knowledge is needed.